Ancient Words Ever True

In the past couple of years, there has been a major shift in preaching style and content, even in Children Ministries. Bible preachers emphasized less and less on Bible Stories and more and more on Bible Lessons for Life. This skewness (lopsidedness) of emphasis has made majority of us possess only a very shallow knowledge of many actual events recorded in the Bible. In a time when people are becoming increasingly too busy to read the Bible themselves thereby depending more and more on what they hear in church, it is annoying to hear even Bible Teachers make wrong references, mix up events, omit key facts, insert non-existent facts etc. Many of us our children (maybe you’re one of them) know next to nothing about Bible Stories, even the Great Events. Even the little they know were largely learnt from cartoons, gospel music and Bible films; with all the embellishments (salt-and-pepper) added to make the story “sweet.” The early church father left a legacy for us by setting Church S...

“Rejoice, Zeb'ulun, in your going out; and Is'sachar, in your tents.” – Deuteronomy 33:18 RSV The subject of Destiny Diversion has become quite popular among Christians, especially in Deliverance-oriented ministries. It is seen as a work of demons and (or through) their agents, and so prayers are continually being raised against them. However, there is an aspect of Destiny Diversion strategy that is much more lethal, yet largely unrecognised for what it is. That will be the subject of our discussion and meditation in this piece. For want of words, let us call it “Scripting.” When a child is growing up and doing well, what usually happens is that he wins for him/herself lots of adult-admirers. Each of these admirers writes a “script” on how the child will end up, and the path to success s/he should follow. And to the degree that they are privileged to influence the child’s life, they will do all in their power to make sure that child acts out their script for his/her life...

When we say (pray) like our Savior taught us, “Give us this day our daily bread,” it teaches us... (1) Sobriety (soberness) and Temperance: for we ask only for BREAD, not for what we do not need. (2) We ask for OUR bread; that teaches us Honesty and Industry (hard work). Not the bread of others, or the bread of deceit (Prov.20:17), or the bread of idleness (Prov.31:27); but the bread honesty can get. (3) We ask for our DAILY bread: which teaches us constantly depend upon Divine Providence. (4) We beg God to GIVE it to us, not sell it to us; not lend it to us, but give it. The greatest of men must look up to God in mercy for their daily bread. (5) We pray, “Give [it to] US.” This teaches us a compassion for the poor; and that we ought to pray with our families – physical and spiritual. (6) We pray that God will give it to us THIS DAY; which teaches us to renew the desire of our soul towards God, as the wants of our body are renewed daily. And my God shall supply all your need acco...

“He that is not with me is against me: and he that gathereth not with me scattereth.” – Jesus Christ (Luke 11:23 (KJV)) Usually, we think that to set ourselves against Jesus or His cause, we have to be involved in something very anti-Christian: like belonging to, or identifying with the Church of Satan, being homosexual or lesbian, blatantly opposing the Gospel or God’s ministers, being proud in sin, belonging to a secret cult etc. However, Jesus teaches us that it requires very little to set yourself against Him. All you need to be against Him is not to be for Him; not to have the same concerns and passions as He; not to love God and men as He does; not to love what He loves and hate what He hates; not to move in the direction He is moving. Identifying with Jesus is not in MERE church-going or dressing or talking Jesus. On a particular day, John said to Jesus, “Master, we saw one casting out demons in Your name; and we prevented him, BECAUSE HE DOES NOT FOLLOW US. But Jesus sa...

“…Why are you discussing [among yourselves] the fact that you have no bread?” – Matthew 16:8 (ESV) One of the hardest lessons to learn in our walk with God is the fact of God’s ability AND willingness to provide for our needs. We learn early the stories of Elijah and the ravens, of the Zarephath woman, of Manna and Quails for the Israelites etc. but as we grow and come face to face with the issues of this life, these Biblical stories become more and more like a fairy tale. We claim to believe the Bible accounts, but we find it hard to come to terms with the practical implications of the statement “I am the Lord; I change not (Mal.3:6).” We dare to believe that the Bible accounts happened in the past, but deep down within us, we do not think such mighty acts can be repeated in our time – not to talk of in our lives. We are quick to remind ourselves that “times have changed.” It's not easy Now, I do not want to deceive you that it is an easy lesson to learn; and so God, in...